We Have Six Hours to Erase Fear From Our Memory

December 10, 2009

There may be hope for those exposed to traumatic experiences — but they have to act fast. A team of psychologists at NYU found that people have a six-hour window to erase fearful memories.

When participants were re-exposed to an image associated with fear within six hours recalling the traumatizing experience, the fearful memory could be erased. Psychologists were essentially able to re-write the memories to make them less traumatic.

The scientists say the study is a major breakthrough because it suggests that a "non-pharmacological" natural approach can be used to manage emotional memories. In other words, drugs might not be required to treat people with post-traumatic stress syndrome, anxiety disorders, or phobias. The potential to modify human memory is also quite fascinating — and hopefully nothing to fear!

Source: Flcikr User avialle

11 Comments

POPSUGAR Sex & Culture 3 years 23 weeks

Ah yes, it does. :)

POPSUGAR Sex & Culture 3 years 23 weeks

Ah yes, it does. :)

bethinabox 3 years 23 weeks

oops, cut off my comment! "A day later, the investigators worked on banishing the fear. They re-exposed the volunteers to the same image, but this time without the shocks. They found that this worked, but only if the volunteer was first made to recall the fearful experience and, critically, made to recall it no longer than six hours before the "treatment" commenced." So they were re-exposed a day after the "trauma", and treated within six hours of being re-exposed. Does that make sense?

bethinabox 3 years 23 weeks

oops, cut off my comment!"A day later, the investigators worked on banishing the fear.They re-exposed the volunteers to the same image, but this time without the shocks.They found that this worked, but only if the volunteer was first made to recall the fearful experience and, critically, made to recall it no longer than six hours before the "treatment" commenced."So they were re-exposed a day after the "trauma", and treated within six hours of being re-exposed. Does that make sense?

bethinabox 3 years 23 weeks

I agree, either way this is definitely a big step forward in therapies. But here's where I got my line of thinking from: "In the study, the volunteers were wired up to electrodes and given a shock each time they were shown a picture of differently coloured squares to make them fearful of the image - which they did. >A day later<, the investigators worked on banishing the fear. They re-exposed the volunteers to the same image, but this time without the shocks. They found that this worked, but only if the volunteer was first made to recall the fearful experience and, critically, made to recall it no longer than six hours before the "treatment" commenced." So it was a day after the initial "trauma", but they had to be treated within six hours of being "reminded" of it. Does that make sense? Of course there's no telling whether or not this could work with serious PTSD cases and other things, but I hope it does, it would be fantastic.

bethinabox 3 years 23 weeks

I agree, either way this is definitely a big step forward in therapies. But here's where I got my line of thinking from: "In the study, the volunteers were wired up to electrodes and given a shock each time they were shown a picture of differently coloured squares to make them fearful of the image - which they did.>A day later<, the investigators worked on banishing the fear.They re-exposed the volunteers to the same image, but this time without the shocks.They found that this worked, but only if the volunteer was first made to recall the fearful experience and, critically, made to recall it no longer than six hours before the "treatment" commenced."So it was a day after the initial "trauma", but they had to be treated within six hours of being "reminded" of it. Does that make sense? Of course there's no telling whether or not this could work with serious PTSD cases and other things, but I hope it does, it would be fantastic.

POPSUGAR Sex & Culture 3 years 23 weeks

Hey bethinabox — This is the way I understood it: in the experiment, the treatment came 6 hours after the traumatic event (being electrically shocked while looking at an image). If within 6 hours after the shock the image was shown without the shock, the participants could be taught to no longer associate fear with that image (the reminder of the traumatic event). Either way, I hope they're able to apply the findings in a broad way.

Yogaforlife 3 years 23 weeks

Oh I hope bethinabox is right! I'd volunteer for more research in this. I suffer pseudodysphagia - an anxiety based fear of choking and I hate it! I choked on a piece of chicken when I was 5 (I couldn't breathe in at all to try and cough) and it was very traumatic for me. My family made fun of me for it instead of realizing how traumatic it was and taking me to get counselling. I was 13 before I ate meat or anything crunchy again. To this day - eating gives me anxiety and I have these embarrassing ticks - such as holding my throat as I swallow. If it doesn't go down smoothly, my whole body will jerk - and my legs kick out and I involuntarily try and stand up. There's nothing more embarrassing than sitting at a restaurant and having one of those jerks and kicking the table so all the tableware chinks and all the people at the surrounding tables turn to look at you as you are partially standing up over the table. I wish I could control it better. At Thanksgiving this year, my 4 year old niece had a piece of food go down the wrong pipe and she started coughing,and it sent me into a panick attack. I couldn't eat another bite of food for hours afterwards until I had calmed down. So seeing someone else choke also triggers it for me. UGH!!! I've tried therapy, hypnotherapy and nothing seems to work. The only thing that has ever helped it was paxil but I don't want to be on medication so I don't take it.

Yogaforlife 3 years 23 weeks

Oh I hope bethinabox is right! I'd volunteer for more research in this.I suffer pseudodysphagia - an anxiety based fear of choking and I hate it! I choked on a piece of chicken when I was 5 (I couldn't breathe in at all to try and cough) and it was very traumatic for me. My family made fun of me for it instead of realizing how traumatic it was and taking me to get counselling. I was 13 before I ate meat or anything crunchy again. To this day - eating gives me anxiety and I have these embarrassing ticks - such as holding my throat as I swallow. If it doesn't go down smoothly, my whole body will jerk - and my legs kick out and I involuntarily try and stand up. There's nothing more embarrassing than sitting at a restaurant and having one of those jerks and kicking the table so all the tableware chinks and all the people at the surrounding tables turn to look at you as you are partially standing up over the table. I wish I could control it better.At Thanksgiving this year, my 4 year old niece had a piece of food go down the wrong pipe and she started coughing,and it sent me into a panick attack. I couldn't eat another bite of food for hours afterwards until I had calmed down. So seeing someone else choke also triggers it for me. UGH!!!I've tried therapy, hypnotherapy and nothing seems to work. The only thing that has ever helped it was paxil but I don't want to be on medication so I don't take it.

chillchic 3 years 23 weeks

This will be very cool if it actually works in real situations and not just in a lab. It's too late for me, though.

bethinabox 3 years 23 weeks

I don't think the article was saying that you have do the "treatment" within six hours after the actual traumatic event - it's six hours after the REMINDER of the traumatic event. I don't know if that's what you meant to say up there or not but that's how I understood the article.

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